People were understandably freaked out when reports surfaced in 2019 that Google and Amazon were giving human contractors access to audio clips from customers’ Google Home (now Google Nest) and Echo devices. Google has since changed its policy, requiring you to opt in to recording voice searches in the first place. Opting in also allows for human review, though the audio is anonymized. (Google does this to improve personalization across its platform.)
If you don’t remember whether you opted in or not, or if you opted in and regret it now, it’s worth taking a moment to see what Google’s recorded about you. Even though Google changed its stance on recording voice searches, the rest of your Google ecosystem activity might still be getting saved for posterity, no opt-in required.
